Solar cell classification

Solar cell classification

Fig. 1: Solar cell with EVA foil and glass placed in a PIDcon

Potential induced degradation (PID) is a serious reliability problem in PV power plants. Hence it is important to investigate its products on their PID susceptibility. The aim of the PIDcon is to enable the producers to test their product a searly as possible in the production chain on solar cell level and to investigate the encapsulation materials as well. Hence the influence of the solar cell and its SiNx layer can be investigated independently from the influence of the EVA and glass. Note that the PID that is considered here is the shunting of the solar cells due to high voltage stress induced leakage currents (PID-s).

In order to classify solar cells, it is important to use sensitive EVA and glass so that the solar cell is the criticall parameter for the PID sensitivity of the whole stack. It is possible to add a lamination step prior to the actual measurement to improve the comparability to the actual modules. The solar cells are contacted via golden contact pins, which can be adjusted to the bus bar design of the solar cells, even island busbars are possible. The software PIDStudio enables the user to set a pass and fail criterion and it also suggests one according to the IEC standard and experience of the scientist from Fraunhofer CSP.